MAKING IT
ON THEIR OWN
Four entrepreneurs tell their stories
By ELLEN GRAY
Photography KIT WILLIAMS
Most successful small businesses
are born of a great
idea that was waiting to
happen. However, they do
not grow and thrive based only on the
implementation of that idea; they prosper
because the visionary behind the business
possesses the will to make it succeed.
How many of us have had the urge to
do something we’ve always loved, or at
least dreamed of doing? Better yet, how
many of us have actually had the gumption
to make a go of it? DENVER WOMAN
spoke with four women who dared to
move beyond the stage of pipe dreams
and wishful thinking, and who today are
at the helm of businesses that are as
diverse — and definitely as interesting —
as any one could imagine. Each of these
women is unique, and their stories are as
interesting as the businesses they own.
AUROMIRA
Melodie Reagan’s résumé is as impressive
as it is long. A veteran of the telecommunications
industry, she worked her way
to the top in a male-dominated industry
where only the best survive. A quick look at
the companies she’s worked for will make
even the most successful corporate types
take pause: McDonnell-Douglas, Sprint,
Qwest, Level 3 and ICI, to name a few — in
high-powered jobs that have moved her
around the country and overseas.
Indeed, while working at Sprint in the
early 1990s, she broke through the glass
ceiling and become one of that company’s
first women directors. “My career followed
the growth of the telecommunications
industry, and I was there in its heyday,”
Reagan acknowledges. “At that
time, they were hiring at the equivalent of
one person per hour.”
Eventually, however, all the movement,
travel and change took a toll on Reagan: “I
was working at Level 3 and was in discussions
with a software start up to oversee
sales and marketing. At the last minute
the CEO left, and I realized I was tired of all
the upheaval. It was at that point I decided
to start my own business.”
And so, six years ago, Auromira was
born. The company offers contract and
permanent staffing services; the name
Auromira is an Indian phrase that means “spirit within.” As the name suggests,
Auromira is anything but ordinary. “In
America, a company that needs staffing
will normally put together a team of people
to carry out the business,” Reagan
explains. “In Europe, however, they use
interims. These are people hired to work a
limited period of time to serve a defined
role in a company.”
Today, Auromira offers a gamut of services,
including flexible staffing arrangements
for businesses, permanent hires or
contract to hire (enabling the entities to
get to know one another), career coaching
and interims. The company has evolved to
a full-service firm, which works with companies
throughout the full cycle of their
work force.
“In my years in business, I learned some
valuable lessons that I have incorporated in
Auromira. The No. 1 reason people leave
jobs is they are unhappy with management.
So we focus on key training of management
to prevent this problem,” Reagan
says. She acknowledges that she herself has
worked under great leadership as well as
lost leadership, adding, “I have taken this
experience, and now we work within companies
to help manage expectations for
employees. So we help both sides, and this
in turn helps employees and management
work together for a win-win situation.”
A generally acknowledged yet often
overlooked fact is that a business’ most
important asset is its people. In keeping
with this thought, Reagan brings an additional
perspective to the table, as a female
who has truly made it in a man’s world.
She says, “When I started my career at
McDonnell-Douglas, working in aerospace,
the highest-ranking woman in that
company was a supervisor. Now, women
are the fastest-growing segment of the
work force, and I know how important it
is for women such as me to be a mentor
for others who need help and guidance.”
As incoming chairperson of TiE
Rockies, an affiliate of the world’s largest
not-for-profit organization for entrepreneurs,
Reagan is well positioned to take
her message to the next level. She
explains, “TiE is all about mentoring and
helping others succeed. A big part of this
is economic development, which I strongly
advocate. You can feed someone, or
you can teach them how to grow food
and feed themselves. So it’s good for
industry, business and community.
“It’s never too late to learn,” she continues. “Just look at J.K. Rowling. She
wrote the Harry Potter series later in her
life, and now she’s taught a whole generation
of kids to enjoy reading. I think the
happiest people are the ones who are willing
to risk it all. They may not necessarily
be the most successful, but they’ve taken
the risk, maybe fallen a few times, and in
the end they’ve made it.”
Reagan’s positive attitude can be
summed up in her own words: “I don’t
know what life holds, but then again, I’ll
never know if I don’t try. When my day
ends, I want to be able to look back and
say, ‘I lived!’ I tried, I experienced, I did it
with respect.”
BORNFIT
When Lisa Welch became pregnant
with her first child, she made a commitment
to continue incorporating fitness
and health into her lifestyle. The problem
was that the athletic clothing that was
available for pregnant women seeking to
exercise was entirely inappropriate for a
true athlete like herself. As Welch recalls, “Velour sweat suits were just not the
answer to a good fitness routine.”
Realizing that a true void existed in the
marketplace, Welch teamed up with her college roommate, Julie Hill, to create
BornFit, a line of maternity athletic wear
that looked great, felt great and offered
women the chance to exercise in clothing
perfectly suited to their changing bodies.
“Our criteria when we looked at this
business was to come up with clothing that
was moisture-wicking, didn’t look like
maternity clothing and could easily be worn
long after the baby was born,” Welch
explains. “Surprisingly, once we launched
our line in stores, we quickly discovered that
90 percent of women were not buying it
for maternity wear — they were buying it
for running, biking, tennis and everything
else. So although we initially designed the
line to suit pregnant women, it’s a niche
that appeals to women in all stages of life.”
Launched just five years ago, the
BornFit line of clothing is now sold locally
at well-known venues such as Runners
Roost, Boulder Running Company, Fleet
Feet Sports and online at Lucy maternity.
Many stores across the nation carry the
clothing line as well. The success of the
line was almost instantaneous, but after
speaking with Welch, it comes as little surprise
that she has managed to succeed
where so many others may fail.
A Colorado native, Welch studied business
marketing at CSU in Fort Collins,
eventually working in the family real estate
business. After nine years, she and her college
roommate decided to design a line of
workout clothing that would appeal to
women in all stages of their pregnancy
and, it was hoped, encourage them to
maintain an active lifestyle.
“Starting this business was not that different
from graduating from college and
starting a new job. You’re basically just
thrown to the wolves. When I first graduated,
I sold software and did a lot of traveling. I would be talking to people, and I
wouldn’t have a clue as to the answer, but
I learned that this was OK, and that it’s
never bad to admit when I didn’t know
something. That way, when I do tell someone
something, they can be assured it’s
going to get done,” Welch says.
Another big plus in her corner is the
fact that she loves meeting people and
sharing her experiences. “This has helped
me out immensely,” she says. ”I’ve
learned to trust people and not worry
about them taking my idea. I’ve been able
to connect with excellent manufacturers
and designers, and this all came about as
a result of talking about the business concept.
It just wouldn’t have happened if I’d
been scared to talk about it.”
In the end, Welch says, it’s all about
attitude: “When you love what you do, it’s
really not work at all. It’s about passion. In
this case, my passion is not to sell as much
clothing as possible. It’s about getting
pregnant women to exercise, to stay fit. So
it’s the movement behind the message
that’s so important.”
Today, Welch has taken this passion for
health even further as a result of losing her
mother-in-law to heart disease last fall.
The company is now an active supporter
of the American Heart Association Go Red
for Women campaign, a nationwide effort
to raise awareness of the role exercise can
play in preventing heart disease.
PURE MASSAGE
As a college student at the University of
Colorado in Boulder, Sharon Hwang knew
she wanted to be an architect and urban
planner. It took two years of living in
Nepal, working with the Peace Corps, to
convince her that the path she originally
thought was hers was little more than a
fork in the road.
Today, Hwang owns Pure Massage and
The Wellness Center, which offer holistic
health care and massage therapy to
clients. Not bad for a woman who
thought that building parks and roads
would bring her the satisfaction she
sought from her life.
“I grew up with a family photo-finishing
business, and I was at that perfect age
that meant I got to work in the business
while my family went on vacation. It made
me think that I never wanted to own my
own business,” Hwang says.
This sentiment is a far cry from
where she stands today, as a successful
woman business owner in a highly
competitive, cutting-edge industry.
In many ways, her work today is largely
a byproduct of her high school and college
days, when she worked as a volunteer
at Boulder Safehouse, which serves
victims of domestic violence. After graduating
from college, she decided to join the
Peace Corps and was stationed in Nepal,
working with women to provide health
and sanitation training.
Two years later, she returned to the
states and obtained a master’s in psychotherapy
from Regis University. Upon
receiving her degree, she went to work at
The Wellness Center, a not-for-profit
health care center housed inside Wild
Oats. Faced with rising costs and little
profit, Wild Oats decided to close the center
down. The year was 2001, and Hwang
made a bold move. Along with a co-worker,
she bought the business, quickly turning
it into a for-profit entity that made
money within the first year. She bought
out her partner and continued to run the
operation, which remains successful and
busy. “I think it helped we had worked
there as employees before buying the
business because the learning curve was
so huge,” Hwang says. “I have to say, if I
had known what it would involve, I’m not
so sure I would have done it!”
Hwang clearly has never regretted her
decision to move away from the family business and focus instead on helping people live healthier, happier
lives. “I’m a real people person, and I like to interact with those
around me. My years in the Peace Corps taught me a lot about
who I am as a person, and I returned to Colorado with a much different
outlook on life. I was more contemplative and much less
materialistic. So the wellness industry was a natural fit.”
Hwang considers herself fortunate to have had the opportunity
to learn an industry that was on the verge of explosive
growth. “There are so many parts to the industry, including massage
therapy, alternatives to traditional medicine, wellness — it’s
continually changing, and the learning curve is big,” she says.
In 2005, Hwang opened a second venue, Pure Massage, in
southeast Denver. With both businesses thriving and growing,
and plans to open more locations in the metro area, Hwang
stresses the importance of maintaining balance in her life: “I think
this is like having kids. If you have one, it’s manageable, but more
means more work. It’s so important in any business to have some
kind of exit strategy, to know where you want to go and how you
want to grow. Even more important is that you don’t lose yourself
in the business. I’ve come to realize that my energy will ebb
and flow, and I cannot sustain a work ethic of 24-7 for years on
end. So I’ve learned to work hard when I need to, but then to pull
back when it makes sense.”
THE TEA BOX
As its name implies, The Tea Box, a cozy restaurant/tea room in
Cherry Creek North, is the perfect setting to enjoy a relaxing cup of tea any time of the day. This is just the effect
Regina Leong was striving for when she
decided to start a business that would
enable her to do something she loved.
Originally from Singapore, Leong and
her husband moved to Colorado 14 years
ago after attending college at the
University of Washington in Seattle. She
worked for several years in the corporate
world doing finance and real estate, and
eventually tired of the politics and shenanigans
that too often plague these jobs.
When a friend suggested she turn her
attention to finding a trade that she felt
passionate about, she thought for a time
and realized that her most cherished activity
was afternoon tea. That was the turning
point, and there was no turning back.
Leong’s first realization was that she had
to learn as much as she could about the different
teas and how they were made. “I
decided early on that I would not visit with
any competitors in this business. I didn’t
want this to be anyone else’s concept,” she
says. Instead, she traveled to California and
met with several suppliers who taught her
well the variances of the tea world. “It was
so fascinating for me, having grown up in
the British Colony of Singapore. I was able
to take my Asian roots and blend them into
a strong heritage of tea,” she reflects.
Even in college, her interest in the tea
world had taken root deep within her soul.“Friends would ask me to pick them up
some tea, and I learned a lot about the different
grades by doing so. This helped me
when I decided to go into this business,
and by the end I was able to filter through
about 100 possible suppliers and narrow
them down to just six,” she says.
Leong says she chooses her teas based
on factors such as vintage, slopes and
estates where they are grown and weather
conditions they withstand. “This is a commodity
much like wine, whereby some teas
are aged, and are regarded as connoisseur
teas,” she explains. “I have a supplier in
New York who knows everything about
teas and is expert on Purah teas, which are
aged teas dating back to the 1900s.”
Perhaps Leong’s strongest asset, her
knowledge and love of the profession
aside, is her patience and willingness to
educate even the most novice tea
drinkers on what she obviously regards
as an art form.
“People are always surprised at what
they will like once they try it,” she says.“Many will come in here saying they won’t
drink green tea, and I’ll tell them to start
with a basic scented tea, such as jasmine,
white peach or Earl Grey. Then they can
graduate to the more complex blends, and soon it becomes an experience and is part of their lifestyle.”
The Tea Box has come a long way from its modest beginnings
as a place where people could gather to drink a cup of tea. Today,
a fiercely loyal clientele makes the venue a part of their routine
and often drop by for lunch or an afternoon snack as part of their
regimen. “When I first thought about this, I imagined it would be
another coffee shop concept, but one that would not offer customers
their daily caffeine fix. What I’ve found instead is that this
is a slower-paced environment, and customers are generally more
polite and relaxed when they’re here,” Leong says with a smile.
Next on the horizon, Leong discusses her plans to open another
Tea Box in Boulder, a place well known for healthy lifestyle and
willingness to embrace mind/body healthy alternatives. The new
restaurant will open next year in the heart of downtown Boulder.
The company also will continue to focus on a growing and thriving
mail order and gift business, which ships to customers around
the world. As part of this effort, a company Web site will soon be
online, enabling customers to place custom orders for hard-toprocure
teas and gift sets.
“When I look at my life, I couldn’t have envisioned it to be
what it is today,” Leong says contentedly. “I grew up in an Asian
country, and I thought I would be a lawyer, just like most of my
family. I never would have thought this would be my life, but I
couldn’t be happier. Although my family lives so far away, I have
so many wonderful friends here that they’re like a second family.
I also have a wonderful 8-year-old daughter, who maybe someday
will love this business as much as I do.”
